Friday, 22 February 2013

Out of endings come beginnings

We must not be afraid of endings. Endings are natural and inevitable. Endings happen all the time and all around us. The half-term will end today and I will return back to work on Monday. On my return to work, all the hopes and ambitions that seemed in reach during half-term will become lost among the filing and stapled spreadsheets on my desk. I will tuck them away in my drawer with the collection of paperclips and loose change because reality has shown itself once more and the nine to five fairies are nagging at me to keep focused.

But the half-term must end because time rolls on, unconcerned with things that we would like to do. Unspoken words remain unsaid because moments slip past us with barely a sideways glance to see if we were watching. We must not be afraid of endings because we cannot escape them. Endings give meaning to the things that we do do and the things that we did, or didn't say. We should reach out and grab the moments that we want to keep and we must acknowledge time even as it relentlessly moves forward.

Stories too must have endings, endings that are natuaral and inevitable, that give meaning to the words that have come before, to the actions that the characters have done, to what they have seen and said. A story that meanders without end is luxiourious, indulgent, but meaningless.Endings show us the beauty, the depth and the sadness of the world and without them we are floating without substance, we are the empty page waiting for colour, the sentence waiting for a full stop to make our meaning clear.

With this post on endings, I begin my blog on story seeking. I doubt future posts will be as abstract as this one. This is a reminder to myself not to fear endings. To embrace them. To open myself to the opportunities and change that will inevitably occur because of them. And just because the half-term is ending, the plans I have made during it do not have to.